Oh jeesh. It was supposed to be TGC. I’m sorry about that. Ima blame the drugs?
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Well… I never mentioned using a glass for a reason. No need to make one dirty! I also might mention that I tend to forget which bottle is “for the recipe” and have been k own to accidentally cook with an open bottle of rum just to my right (ingredients are to the left). There’s a reason it took over a year to get that recipe recorded!
I’d suggest using a nice flask of water. That and listening to the sizzle. When things crackle like Chinese New Year you’re a bit past “next step”. Other tell-tail would be loosing the firmness of the veg. For me that’s a swallow, a joke with the boss lady or a toss the ball in the house with the dog followed by another swallow.
I’m concerned my rum enjoyment is in my past. I just imported 6 fresh victims and I’m loath to send them to a different, less appreciative end. Meeting with the ducks next week to determine my fate and the fate of my beloved bottles.
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It’s all right! As I wrote in my submission, “Life gives you lemons. Life is meant to give you lemons. Take that.” 
When I was younger, I was more concerned with my digital footprint and online image (as I had a terrible rep offline, not unlike what people say about mister dismal online) thinking they would redeem me. Well, with things like cancel culture getting out of control, I’ve already stopped caring a fig about what strangers say behind my back. But I did close down my online profiles due to surveillance concerns.
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Agreed! Both with the “fun” and with the “thanks” to Pigfender!
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@pigfender
Thankee for yet another wondrously fun day!!!
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I noticed when looking through the PDF version this morning that there was a weird formatting thing going on in some first paragraphs… which turns out to be a strange side effect of different approaches to inserting photos into the text. Anyway, having figured that out, I’ve re-compiled and re-uploaded. The links are the same, but both the Scrivener project file and the PDF version will now be slightly different (better!) if you download them again…
… and since I was in there, I added a contents page to the PDF version to keep xiamenese’s daughter happy! 
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And then I got carried away watching The Music Man (1962) tonight… feeling like I identify with Marian in the story and mister dismal might somewhat see a figment of himself in Prof Harold Hill, with the rut that he’s in now.
Ah I should have mentioned in step 3 of my recipe that the beet greens need to be chopped up, stems and leaves alike, before being tossed into the pan! This is for @xiamenese and @homeport.
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I will remember when I try them
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What on earth is a Graham Cracker @katlovergilpin?
We have a cereal over here in the UK called Golden Grahams… are Graham Crackers similar?
No.
Honey Maid Honey Graham Crackers, Family Size, 6 - 25.6 oz Boxes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HGADQVQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XZVDRCRWF5XBEXV38H93
Not sure what y’all call them over there.
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Jaysen’s correct. Graham crackers are sweet crackers that we use to make s’mores with. Sugar cookies would work and even Oreos if you’re able to crush them to make a pie shell. I never even thought of using Golden Grahams, but I imagine those would make a delicious pie crust as well.
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Duly noted. 
Mark
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By eye. 
I had started a “story” about cooking the way I write. I’m a pantser. LOL A discovery writer and cook. Randomly tossing in stuff that works. The recipe I had been contemplating, I realized wasn’t going to work because people would want more accurate amounts of things. 
LOL
A longstanding tradition is to dip the end of one’s graham cracker in a glass of cold milk just until it gets just that certain amount infused and then eat it before it becomes too soggy and falls off. Repeat until the cracker is gone.
That Golden Grahams cereal hails from the land of graham crackers and is meant to reproduce the idea of graham crackers and milk. The sweetie coating on them they excuse, I think, on the grounds that they are emulating “Honey Grahams” – graham crackers made with honey.
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Thank you @Jaysen , @gr , and @katlovergilpin for sorting out the Graham Cracker conundrum - though I need a UK substitute as oddly (now the world’s gone mad) the real deal would require a bank loan. Yeah, Brexit was such a sweet idea. Thanks, BJ.
When I was knee high to a grasshopper I had a friend whose father worked at the US embassy in London. One glorious day, as a treat, they took me to the PX on an airbase! Root Beer, Dr Pepper, Hershey chocolate, Reece’s peanut cups, Poppycock – all things you couldn’t get in England back then.
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Ay there’s a literal Bahasa Malay term for that: agag-agag. The “a” is like “arrrrrrgh” not “ay”. It means “use as much/little as you fancy”. Oriental treasures.
Hello
I just wanted to thank you for your answer
I know many of the areas you mention in your post quite well.
I do hope that you purchase a tin of ackee one day and have a taste or go to a Caribbean restaurant or take away and just try it.
I’m sure they would give you a sample if you asked 
Thank you for your answer @xiamenese
I know many of the areas you mention.
I do hope you get to try ackee one day. Maybe buy yourself a tin in a Caribbean food shop. Or go into a Caribbean restaurant/ takeaway and ask to try a sample.
I finally read all of them, mine included but I’ll leave you all to review that one! That this is nonfiction meant that there was vulnerability, sometimes refreshing and sometimes weighty, in the writing. As mister dismal would say in his work (yeah he’s a journalist so some of you may have come across his real name), we are often more honest when talking to strangers / when we don’t have the expectation of being found out (my paraphrase).
Since this is nonfiction, I have a strong sense of the words “legacy” and “intergenerational”, especially in @pacifika and @katlovergilpin’s stories. And @SophiaWickham @xiamenese @Velviit (And @katlovergilpin you left your real name in your work 
I know because I did a mapping between L&L forum handle and NiaD byline. I also happen to know someone else with your first name who has a younger sister called Heidi).
@pigfender Finally I get to know another guy who cooks! Oooo. When in school my teachers and classmates said, “Mums cook…” I would protest inwardly, “My mum doesn’t cook, it’s my dad…” I thoroughly enjoyed your story. Just couldn’t shake off the suspense whilst you were in the diner where you and your darling were fresh out of uni and had various dishes without even having seen the menu. Pasta in coffee sauce — I should try to reverse-engineer that. Someday.
My mum taught me how to process beet greens though! Speaking of dad, it’s a bit sad because about a week after he’d taught me how to marinate and cook meat, which is basically the last and most important thing I needed to learn from him, his vision worsened and was diagnosed with cataracts and I was distressed that he had to go through things we as a family were resolved not to go through. Life’s lemons suck. I dunno. I dunno.
@WingNWing My first university major was chemistry and then I switched to mathematics! Measuring things all the time grated me, and I can imagine the effect that routine had on your initial aversion to cooking.
@Jaysen I didn’t know you were a literary buff and physics/calculus nerd! For added fun, I narrated your story to myself (unrecorded, of course) in what I hope is the correct southerner’s accent… I can’t, I mustn’t sound too sure about something that I may be wrong about.
To be continued…
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